“The Sky is the Limit” themed conference urged CUCCOA members to rethink several of their strategies when working with event planners.

“We’re pulling in trends from across the hospitality industry, like offering registration services for events planners holding events on our campuses,” said Lori Johnston, Central Region Director for CUCCOA. “A lot of our members need to get creative to stretch their budgets, so things like online booking options and techniques to help when there’s not a full-time sales coordinator on staff were also hot topics.”

Because CUCCOA is comprised of college and university meeting and event centers, they also concentrated on how they can add value to the jobs they offer students. “We had a wonderfully entertaining session with Tony Conte of Ryerson University. It reminded each of us how lucky and unique we are to be able to work closely with students and to provide them with learning out comes that can carry forward into future goals.”

Attendance at the January Winter meeting was higher than previous years, and plans are already underway for next year’s conference, hosted by Queen’s University in February 2013.

To learn more about CUCCOA Central and the incredible variety of College and University campuses it includes, visit their page on uniquevenues.ca and cuccoa.org.